Waterfront condo backers turn in 26,000 signatures for ballot

A new flier from 8 Washington supporters is heavy on chain-link fences and parking lots but only has one image of the controversial 136-foot tall condominium building — a small one on the back.

It looks like San Franciscans are in for dueling ballot measures over a luxury waterfront condominium project.

Supporters of the proposed 8 Washington development near the Ferry Building turned in more than 26,000 signatures Monday to get the controversial development on the November ballot.

The group, funded by the developer, contractor and architect for the 134-unit development, needs only 9,702 valid signatures to qualify their measure for the Nov. 5 ballot. A spokesman for the effort said he was “absolutely” confident they had met that mark.

“We are one step closer in giving San Franciscans the opportunity to vote ‘yes’ for new parks, jobs, housing, sidewalk cafes and shops on our shared waterfront,” Alec Bash, a retired city planner and supporter of the development, said in a statement.

The city’s Department of Elections now has 30 days to check the signatures turned in and verify if the requisite number are valid.

If so, that will pave the way for competing ballot measures in November — barring a threatened lawsuit or other ruling invalidating the pro-8 Washington petition drive.

A referendum on the Board of Supervisors’ June 2012 approval of a special height-limit increase for the project already qualified for the ballot after 8 Washington opponents turned in more than 31,000 signatures a year ago.

That measure will ask voters whether or not they approve of upping the height limit for the project from the current 84 feet along the waterfront to the 136 feet requested by the developer.

Opponents, including nearby residents, the Telegraph Hill Dwellers neighborhood group, and the San Francisco chapter of the Sierra Club, contend the height increase will block views and set a dangerous precedent that will lead to over development and the walling off of the waterfront.

8 Washington’s backers, led by developer Simon Snellgrove’s Pacific Waterfront Partners, maintain the project is a public benefit, and they want the public to vote on the entire proposal, not just the height exception.

The developer’s initiative includes language that if it gets more votes than any other competing measure, it would take precedence and void the other measure.

The project calls for demolishing the Bay Club at the Gateway and ripping out a port-owned parking lot. Besides a bank of condominiums that will rise 136 feet, the project includes lower condos, a smaller swim club, cafes and 30,000 square feet of new public open space with a children’s play area.

Backers also tout a planned $11 million payment to the city for affordable housing elsewhere, and the 250 construction jobs and 140 permanent jobs the development is projected to create.